


The Red Menace

by ruff_ethereal



Series: Hero Academy and Villain University - Sophomore Year [1]
Category: Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, High School, Villain!Sashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 11:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3765907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sashi Kobayashi was sorted into "Sidekick" on her first day in the Academy. Shortly after, she was reassigned to the Villain school and rechristened a "Villain."</p><p>She was a top student there, one of the very best in almost every class, respected and feared by all her peers.</p><p>Then second year rolled around, she was assigned "Penn Zero" as her Archnemesis for the year, and things have just been downhill from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Red Menace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiowrittenheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



She had him pinned. He couldn't defend himself.

It would be so easy to raise her fist and deliver the finishing blow.

But Sashi didn't.

She took the time to savour her victory, look into her opponent's face and commit it to memory before she utterly destroyed it.

They were only inches away from each other, after all.

She could see the bewildered look on Penn's face, still having trouble believing his silly plan hadn't worked.

She could feel Penn's breath on her face, hot, ragged, tired.

She could look into those stupid eyes of his, see the fear in them, dive deep into those bright, shining pools of blue--

_BUZZ! Beep-beep-beep…!_

“ _Winner! **Penn Zero!”**_

Sashi blinked. Then she got pushed off, and ended up rolling on her side on the Proving Ground floor, staring at the cheering crowds of the Hero side.

Penn chuckled as he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and examined the ugly bruises Sashi had given him. “Woo! Good fight, Sash; already feeling it now, probably gonna _really_ feel it tomorrow!”

Sashi rolled onto her back and examined herself. Barely a scratch on her, except her stomach, where her Critical Hit Sensor was beeping bright red.

Which meant she had been hit.

Confusion gave way to anger, rage boiling through Sashi's veins, her eyes burning with the flames that everyone had learned to fear...

… Everyone except Penn Zero, who'd called them beautiful.

Sashi sprung up from the floor, whipping her head around for that red menace.

She'd been laying on the ground for longer than she'd thought: Penn had already limped away to the showers. All that was left was the stares of anger, disapproval, and disbelief from the Villain side, and the amusement and smugness from the Hero side.

Sashi's face burned red. Eyes cast down to the floor, she stormed away to the Villain's locker room.

* * *

She'd shown the entire gym she was in the wrong school when the Administrators told her she was going to be a “Sidekick.”

She'd hammered into her fellow Villains' heads that she wasn't just a Minion pretending they were better than they were—sometimes, literally.

She'd become one of the best Villains in the school, and was voted “Most Likely To Tip The Balance,” the kind of person that proved that heroes didn't _always_ rise up to the challenge and save the day.

Then second year rolled out, every student got assigned an “Archnemesis” from their sister school, and Sashi's just happened to be Penn Zero.

He was smiling when they first met.

“Hey! You must be Sashi Kobayashi; I heard a lot about you. Aced all of the practical exams in your first year, right?”

Sashi smirked. “Yep. That's not all I've done, but most people tend not to talk about it.”

Penn chuckled, either faking it or too dense to realize the thinly veiled implications. “My name's Penn Zero!” He extended his hand.

“Never heard of you.” Sashi said, keeping her arms to herself.

Penn kept on smiling, unfazed, and brought his hand back down. “Well, I'm pretty sure we're going to get to know each other _very_ well this year! I'm really looking forward to having you as my archnemesis—especially since you're so cute.”

Sashi blinked. She didn't even realize her cheeks were burning red, or that Penn had already turned around and disappeared back into the Sophomore Nemesis Ball until after she was standing in a blank spot in the middle of the Hall of Honours for _way_ too long.

She snapped out of her trance, and swung her head about at the collection of Villains and Heroes, trying to find that mop of stupid, flaming, curly red hair in the crowd so she could glare at him properly.

But try as she might, the human sore thumb was ironically very good at blending in.

Sashi growled. Penn Zero would get to know her, alright—she'd become the girl the made his second year a complete, absolute hell.

That the complete opposite had happened did not sit well with her at all.

 _Especially_ since it wasn't in the way _anyone_ expected.

* * *

“Name and bu—“

The guard at the Home of Heroes' gate stopped and wordlessly opened it for Sashi.

Proper protocol dictated that they should have taken her ID and asked her for what she, a Villain, was doing here, in the Heroes' dormitory.

But after they'd once made a joke about her visiting her “boyfriend” Penn for “official archnemesis” business, and Sashi had made sure they'd never make another one, they just learned not to get in her way.

The other Heroes in Training did the same. Most scattered and gave her a wide berth, others fled into their rooms or the nearest one with an open door. Most cowered or ignored her, but a few glared at her and made it clear she wasn't welcome here.

None of them attacked, however. Heroes did not antagonize.

 _Except_ for one of them.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Open up!”

The door to room 323 “P. Zero and B. Wiseman” opened to reveal the smiling face Sashi had come to despise more than anything else in the world.

“Hey, Sash, what's up?”

Sashi lunged forward, grabbed Penn's shirt collar, and pulled their faces inches away from each other once more.

“ _Don't call me_ 'Sash.' _”_

Penn chuckled. “I thought archnemeses were supposed to have nicknames for each other! Kind of like pet names.”

The “strong enough to kill the faint-of-heart with a single look” glare on Sashi's face faltered, quickly replaced by a frown of uneasiness and the lightest dusting of red on her cheeks.

“ _Shut up._ I don't know what kind of trick you pulled on me earlier today, but let me make it _very_ clear that it is not going to work again.”

Penn smirked. “You mean you haven't realized what it was?”

Sashi had. She didn't want to admit it, though, so she glared at him again and twisted her fist until she could hear the fabrics tearing.

“I'm going to beat you, Zero. I am going to wipe that stupid grin of your face. I am going kick your posterior _so_ hard your future kids will be going 'What the hell was that?', and your ancestors are going to go flipping in their graves.”

“Okay! Gotta say, though, I'm _very_ okay with the idea of losing to you.”

Sashi's face burned completely red. She threw Penn so hard he stumbled back into the dented, chipped crater on the wall directly behind him.

“ _This isn't over, Zero!”_

WHAM!

Sashi slammed the door so hard the boys were going to need a new door if they couldn't fix the warped and bent wood. She turned back to the entrance and stomped away.

… Then she quietly sneaked back to a wall of their room, and pressed to it the listening device she'd stolen from the equipment room.

What she was doing was clearly illegal by the rules of the Academy, and she looked incredibly stupid with the stethoscope-like device around her ears, but everyone knew better than to get between two archnemeses—and besides, that was against the rules of the Academy, too.

“Seriously, Penn, there's more than one crazy evil chick in this school!”

Sashi scowled.

Penn laughed. “Yeah, but there's only one Sashi Kobayashi.”

You could practically feel Boone shake his head. “I don't know what you see in that girl, PZ.”

“Neither do I, really, but then again, who does when it hits you?”

“I still think you're just crazy.”

“Crazy in love, yeah!”

Sashi rolled her yes.

Boone sighed. “So, you going to ask her out now?”

Sashi choked and turned red again.

“Nope.”

Steam started pouring out of Sashi's ears as her mouth turned into an even deeper scowl.

“ _Dude,_ a date's definitely cheaper than all these new doors, shirts, and underwear we have to keep buying.”

Now it was Penn's turn to shake his head. “You can't rush love, Boone. You have to be patient, take your time, wait for them to come to you.”

Sashi snorted quietly.

“That's never going to happen, Penn.”

For once, Sashi was inclined to agree with something Boone said.

“Hey, no one ever knew who they were going to be paired with for their Archnemesis, so who knows what might happen tomorrow?” Penn knocked on the wall. “Right, Sash?”

Sashi sputtered and flailed about angrily. She tore the listening device off her ears and the wall, and hurriedly stuffed it back into her pockets.

This time, she stormed out of the Hall of Heroes for real.

So, that was how Zero wanted to play this game, huh? Well, he was going to get what he wanted this year, _and_ next year. When they were going to get to pick their Nemesis, she was going to make sure the name on his form was going to be Sashi Kobayashi—or else.

And if by fourth year the Administrators didn't think they were destined to be “Official” Archnemeses, she was going to do her damnedest to prove them wrong once more.


End file.
